


The Last of His Breath

by Peach_oniisan



Series: Heart of Winter [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Awkward Sexual Situations, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Inspired By Tumblr, M/M, Rough Kissing, Snow, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 23:12:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5068540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peach_oniisan/pseuds/Peach_oniisan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lust, survivor’s guilt. Death dressed in the colours of winter nipped at their heels; fell on them with the howl of a hungry beast; tethered their bodies tighter in their shared will to live.</p><p>* * *<br/>Based on a tumblr prompt. Feel free to send me more prompts and comments at <a href="http://peach-oniisan.tumblr.com">peach-oniisan.tumblr.com</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last of His Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Anon requested "a fic where unshaved levi and erwin make out in the morning." 
> 
> Thank you anon! Bonus tragedy and additional semi-public sexual content for your enjoyment!

A makeshift pillow of folded woollen shirts, and Levi’s hair atop the scratchy fabric is a cloud of spilled dark ink; tangled and matted with dirt, from five days of forced marching through the snow.

Winter caught up with them on the way back from an expedition already failing. Fourteen brave soldiers had already been lost, to the fear and the cold and the monsters hiding in the storm. Survivors had taken the coats of the fallen. They slept close to each other and their horses for warmth, for comfort; grown men and animals all huddled together in the grim weather under blankets that were never enough to cover them whole.

A fire crackled nearby, fed by their hopes more so than the damp wood they had scavenged. A grey morning rose in the ruins of the village that served as their shelter. Levi’s  eyelashes fluttered open, thick and dark and heavy with snowflakes unmelted. He couldn’t stay asleep, not in the absence of a solid roof, not in the presence of so many threats. The moaning and childish, dumb laughter of the titans travelled on the wind. A wicked lullaby, some faithless bastard had once told him. A song for the sinful and the heretic, who had ventured outside the goddesses’ arms only to make an example of human foolishness.

Levi remembers breaking the man’s nose with a swift left punch, before lending him a handkerchief. “You talk like a Sina cunt and you bleed like one too. Don't mess up your uniform, unless you'd rather do your laundry in icy waters.” 

He had walked away with both his hand and his temples throbbing. If the flowery wallist shit wasn’t enough, this breed of swine had the nerve to spit on the hallowed corpses of their comrades, and Erwin’s pained leadership that had even brought them this far.

Levi’s bones ached in the frosty mist. He moved to sit up and found an arm laying heavy across his chest; a familiar head of golden hair nestled between his shoulder and the curve of his neck. Both of their faces were covered in several days’ worth of stubble. “Erwin…?”

The commander had fallen asleep holding his secret lover’s hand beneath the blankets. Levi shook him with a whisper —

_“Erwin. Erwin.”_

—until he began to realise how stiff Erwin’s fingers were around his own, and his voice began to swell with every instance of the name.

A sense of dread crawled into Levi’s gaze alongside the light of a blossoming dawn. Squirming under a mass of dead weight, he kicked his feet to turn around. The last of his breath was caught between two anguished heartbeats; crushed under a sudden realisation and the rigid flesh piled on top of his small form. 

_And so the cold managed to do what hordes upon hordes of titans couldn’t._

He didn’t spare a single thought for the soldiers sleeping right next to them. Levi writhed to free his hands and began to unbutton Erwin’s coat, then his shirt.

Frantic, he tore open four layers of clothes, cotton and wool and furred animal hide, to bring their skin close and share his body’s meagre heat. His fingers felt for a pulse; the movement of life inside Erwin’s ribcage. A rain of warm, shallow kisses sought out the remnants of breath on top of Erwin’s lips.  

Levi pleaded and cursed, until he heard a sigh that oddly resembled his name.

He breathed out, both of them did. With his mind in a haze of relieved fear and gross happiness, Levi held onto the other man and rested their foreheads together. He opened his mouth to speak, a thousand cherishing scolds already prepared on his tongue, before his words were lost into a kiss proper and deep and demanding.

Lust, survivor’s guilt. Death dressed in the colours of winter nipped at their heels; fell on them with the howl of a hungry beast; tethered their bodies tighter in their shared will to live.

A cold, pink nose nuzzled his own and Levi was drawn into the kiss with force unexpected, his chilled bones rattling beneath freshly-bruised skin. Thick gloved fingers and lips chapped from the wind claimed him, fiercely, and he didn’t care for the beard hair scratching his cheek. His throat was a cage of red butterflies when Erwin’s tongue brushed hot and wet over his own.

 _Did anyone see? Did anyone hear?_ Levi felt a moan escape his chest, and his black mare resting nearby stirred with a snort. He sobered up to the feel of a hand inside his trousers, the rub of a leatherclad palm on the length of his erection. His commander’s naked skin beneath the snow-covered blankets was almost feverish in its heat. _Not now,_ a thought echoed from afar. _Not so close to them, the dead and the living and their fucking horses._

“It’s fine, Levi.”

The voice in his ear was soothing, laced with a warmth that spoke of hearth and home. Alive, they were alive, and for once it was fine to be selfish. For all the children they’ve been forced to bury and all the nights they would spend alone. His flesh, weak, quivered with the sheer effort it took to control the rut of his hips. His bottom lip was bitten red and bloodied by the time he came with a muffled cry, but Levi couldn’t even tell if it was from his own teeth or not.

Sweating in the frozen air, he smoothed down the front of Erwin’s undershirt while the other wiped him clean with his sleeve. “You look like hell,” he said unable to disguise his affection, and Erwin laughed quietly. Both of them were exhausted and dirty, with eyes sunken and lined beyond their years. Levi brushed aside a strand of muddy blond hair, and Erwin turned to put a kiss on his numb fingertips.  

When the sun finally rose, no one around them spoke a word.

 

 


End file.
